The password is not an 'SSH' password. It is the password for the 'root' user account in in the iPhoneOS (which is basically BSD). If you truly cannot remember it, then the only thing to do is restore your phone.

Interesting video. It implies if you have a 3rd party utility on the iPhone that has root access already (in this case iCommander), then you should be able to set permissions on the /private/etc/master.passwd file for all to read/write (0666).

I just checked and I can access this file with iFile, and edit it...all without knowing the root password. (It least I think I can save it...I hit 'edit' then 'cancel' so I didn't mess myself up.)

So...the old adage is true. You can break in...so long as you have physical access.

On Linux, passwords are normally kept in or linked from the /etc/passwd file. It's interesting this video points you to the /private/etc/master.passwd file. There's also a /private/etc/passwd file there too. Before you start hacking away, best to backup any files you're going to edit to a subdirectory. Then, just duplicate the "mobile" accounts password to the "root" over the root password and you should be good to go. If it doesn't work, copy back the file you just mucked with and try another.

can't you just download mobile terminal and use the passwd command to change the password?

You can...in part.

Using MobileTerminal logs you with the username "mobile". You'd normally only have ReadOnly rights to the password file.

That's what the video in the link above was allowing. Using iCommander, the access rights to the master.passwd file were changed so anybody could write to the file.

So...a combination of the two programs allows you to hack in.

But...I'm pretty sure this can all be accomplished with just iFile as it seems to have root access to the phone and can edit files directly. (Of course, I haven't ever tested this as I try not to forget my 'root' password. )